Ana Blandiana claims to be excited and honored after winning the Princess of Asturias Award

The poet, prose writer, essayist and journalist Ana Blandianaawarded this Thursday with the Princess of Asturias Award for Letters 2024, has stated that she is excited and honored by the granting of this award.

“It is difficult for me to express my emotion and gratitude for the great honor that the awarding of the Asturias Prize represents for me, especially because – as always when I receive an award – I cannot help but remember Plato’s thought that recommended the coronation of poets with laurels and their expulsion from the city”Blandiana said in a message uploaded in Spanish to the social network Facebook.

“But what if for me poetry is really a path to the polis, a way to stay, a way to accompany the suffering of others?!!!” added the winner, who is also a political activist in defense of human rights.

Blandiana (Timisoara, 1942), whose works have been translated into more than 25 languages, also thanked “the echo” that the prestigious award will give to her ideas and poems and “which will amplify it in the consciousness of Spanish readers around the world.”

Otilia Valeria Coman, or Ana Blandiana, as she called herself since she was prohibited from using her father’s name in 1978, was a firm opponent of the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaucescu (1965-1989), and a prominent defender of human rights. and democracy.

The jury justified its decision to award her the prize as being a “radically unique creator,” with “indomitable poetry,” and an “extraordinary capacity for resistance in the face of censorship.”

After the fall of the communist regime (1989), Blandiana founded and presided over the Civic Alliance (1991-2001), an independent organization that fought for democracy and for Romania’s entry into the European Union.

The most notable titles of his work of more than 30 books of poetry, novels and essays are: ‘The vulnerable heel’ (1966), ‘The third sacrament’ (1969), ’50 poems’ (1970), ‘Events in my Garden’ (1980), ‘The Hour of Sand’ (1984) or ‘Events on My Street’ (1988).

With information from EFE